Young people supported by Emerge are half as likely to end up back in hospital in crisis*

Our youth workers provide short term support for young people who find themselves in A&E because they are struggling with self-harm or feeling suicidal. This support is purposely non-clinical, our teams are there to be with you during your time in hospital and afterwards but we don’t replace the support of the NHS or any other service. On any given night, you would normally find us playing a game like Uno, doing colouring or generally hanging out and having random chats with young people to help them through their admission. We don’t ask any questions about why you’re there and don’t make any decisions about what should happen next. Our aim it to ease and brighten your evening and bring a #VoiceOfHope 🙂

Please remember, we’re not a crisis line, if you need urgent support in crisis, call 999 or go to your nearest hospital A&E.

Just so you know, our phone project lines are staffed during project opening hours, emails will be responded to asap but not necessarily the same day.

*this reattendance rates comparison is from data supplied by a mental health trust Emerge works with where the average reattendance rate was 12% and the reattendance rate for young people supported by Emerge in the same period was 6%.

We’re proud to have Emerge Projects at the following hospitals…

What does Emerge do in Hospitals?

We are there to support young people aged 10 – 25 when they come into hospital because of self-harm, a suicide attempt or because of an emotional crisis. We don’t take the place of any NHS service, but offer time and emotional support while young people are in hospital and beyond.

Our team are mostly volunteers but we are all specifically trained to support young people in this kind of situation.

It’s totally up to each young person whether or not they’d like one of our team to spend time with them and what they talk about. They can chat about anything, from what’s brought them to hospital to what they like to watch on TV. Our objective is to make their time in hospital easier and more productive in whatever way we can.​

Our conversations remain confidential unless we need to share information in the interests of the young person’s safety, or if they give their permission for us to share something with someone else like their parent or a professional.